We’re always updating our resources here and hope that you’ll come back often or subscribe to our RSS feed to keep upto date with all the articles we have.

With the number of home users getting online around the world increasing dramatically over the last couple of years, unfortunately the education of proper and safe internet usage has not been carried along with it. So there are millions of opportunities for people to exploit those newbies and many of these newbies are children.

Let’s face it, the world is less than perfect and so is the internet. With pornography, hate sites and all the other types of offending websites in plentiful supply it’s easier than ever for your child to find it. Simply doing a search in Google images, for example, can result in a child easily finding pictures of naked men and women very easily. Google and other search engines are helping to protect those searchers by using safe searches that allow certain types of websites and images appearing in search results, but any teenager with limited computer experience can quickly learn how to bypass this.

Over the coming weeks we’ll be releasing some important information that will help you as parents understand the risks and what you can do to protect your family.

So check back soon or RSS the feed to get the updates as soon as they’re released!

With this article I hope to educate readers to the best way to protect their identities and computer data from theft while on the internet.

Why do I need security?

With all the great benefits of the internet and the freedom to find information or services for pretty much anything, there are some drawbacks.

With all this freedom knowledgeable users can, with the help of certain sophisticated programs, gain access to a users computer without their knowledge or permission. This is typically used then to find information such as credit card information, bank details, social security information… Basically anything that they can sell including all the e-mail addresses in your address books, grab those expensive license keys to Windows, Office or any other application you might have installed.

So how do they do this? Well typically now it is done with viruses, trojans and spyware that are downloaded to your computer typically without your knowledge and install themselves running in the background. Viruses are typically more destructive programs, but trojans and spyware are used to search your computer and get information. Alternatively they are used to download enormous numbers of other trojans and spyware that can eventually make a system almost unusable.

So what do I need?

There is an enormous amount of choice when it comes to internet security packages out there, so how do you know which one to pick? Do you just go for the one with the lowest pricing, get some ‘free’ software or what?! Well, to an extent it depends what you will be doing on the internet.

As with anything in this world there are good and bad software and I will provide a list of the software that I recommend to my clients, but these are just recommendations and in the end you need to form your own opinion and read other articles too to make sure you make the right choice for you.

Basically, no matter what you are doing on the internet you should have the following software installed:

Firewall - A piece of software that hides your computer from others on the internet and attempts to control what programs installed on your computer have access to the internet
Antivirus - Software that facilitates the identification and removal of malicious software including viruses and trojans.
Antispyware - Removes tracking software that are used to monitor your activities on the internet and steal data

This software combined will protect you from all but the most persistent hackers and they would rather go for an easier target.

So should you go with some free software or go all out and buy a security suite that includes all the programs in one package? The simple answer is that although there is some great free software out there they simply don’t match the combined power of an purchased integrated package.

If you are doing your banking online, buying things using credit cards or Paypal you should definately purchase an integrated security package. However I will provide some good free tools as well, so if you don’t have the spare cash yet to spend you can still get some protection.

What should you choose?

Well let’s start with my recommendations for the all inclusive packages:

My current personal choice is ZoneAlarm Internet Security and is installed on my development machine and my laptop. As with many of these suites if you have more than one PC on the same network you can buy multi-user packs and it works out much cheaper than buying them individually. They offer a range of products from a free firewall program upto the Internet Security suite that ensures maximum protection from viruses, trojans, spyware, malware etc. With an integrated firewall your computer is kept safe from attacks by hackers and any trojans communicating and downloading other malicious software on your computer.

Another top security suite is F-Secure Internet Security Suite.  This suite is also excellent and offers the same great level of protection as the ZoneAlarm suite.

Both suites offer great protection for your computer and both offer great deals where currently buying a 1 year license enables you to use the software on up to three computers in your home or office.

What we don’t recommend:

The following are from experience using ourselves and also from having to repair many computers using these software packages that have prevented users even using their computers and to the point that the software could not be removed.

We strongly recommend you stay away from Norton Internet Security and the McAfee Internet Security suites. We have seen so many problems with these programs that we just can’t recommend either of them. Yes the big computer manufacturers out there like Dell, HP are bundling this software with their computers but that doesn’t mean it’s good software. Unfortunately this software has proven to be far from comprehensive against many of the threats out there, a simple Google search on reviews for either product (especially McAfee) reveals just how poorly they perform in tests.

Choosing a security suite can be a very personal choice. Some suites are better suited to users who are more computer literate and others for the average home user. The two recommendations made here are both highly capable, industry leaders in home and office security protection software and both are very easy to both setup and use on a daily basis.

I would like to point out that we are in no way affiliated or resellers of either ZoneAlarm or F-Secures products. These are recommendations based on leading security review websites and our own personal use of the products and their use on our clients computers.

Does your ‘All Programs’ menu in START even fit on your desktop? I have seen some clients start menu and all the programs didn’t even fit on the desktop and they were finding it hard to find what they needed!

You can do this process manually but it can take a long time and for the less confident among us it can be a daunting task having to create folders and move shortcuts all over the place.

There is an easier way and it won’t cost you anything but a little time and effort, but the results will be worth it! I found this great little utility that allows you to easily organise your start menu and group certain programs together so they are easier to find. The program is called Tidy Start Menu and comes in two flavours, one is ‘Freeware’ and the other (Pro version) requires a small fee.

• The free version should give most of you all you need to get organised and even allows you to back up your start menu so if you make a mistake you can always go back.
• The paid (Pro) version includes some nice additions such as being able to uninstall a program you no longer need right from in the program and gives you free updates.

Either program works on most Windows systems, from Windows 98 upwards:

Windows 98
Windows Me
Windows NT
Windows 2000
Windows 2003
Windows XP

 

Here I’ll show you how to create a shortcut to a program on your desktop.

• Okay, firstly make sure any programs you have open are minimised so that you can see your desktop.
• Next click on the START button and go into the ‘All Programs’ menu
• Find the program that you want to create a shortcut to
• Next with your mouse on the item right click and drag the program item to your desktop
• Release the mouse button and a small menu will appear. Select ‘Copy here’
• An icon with the programs name should appear on your desktop.

If this didn’t work you can try the following. Depending on your version of Windows you may have to do this another way.

• As before find the program in your START menu
• Right click on the program and select COPY
• Now go to your Desktop and right click on an empty area
• Select Paste

If neither of these methods worked you may be using a restricted account, so check with owner of the computer to create the shortcut for you.

If you are running Windows XP there is an even easier way.

• Find the program you are after in the START menu
• Right click on it and go to the ‘Send To’ menu and select ‘Desktop (create shortcut)’

And you’re done!

This is a great one for beginners to learn how to use Windows faster. These keys work with Windows 98, 2000 & XP, but do require that you have a Windows keyboard (ie have the Windows logo key - between the ctrl and alt keys).

Pressing the following will give you some shortcut ways to access useful functions in Windows.

• windows key + F - Opens the search dialog
• windows key + R - Opens the Run dialog
• windows key + U - Opens Utility Manager (screen reader etc) dialog
• windows key + E - Opens the My Computer Window
• windows key + D - Displays the Desktop (minimises all open windows)
• windows key + L - Switches user to the logon screen - Useful if you use a password and want to quickly lock your machine.
• windows key + B - Displays the start menu bar
• windows key + M - Minimises all windows to display the desktop

These are a few shortcuts that may help you to find what you want faster, or at least show off to your friends that you know more than they do!

I hope you find these tips interesting, if you would like to submit a tip then contact me and I’ll try to get that put up here.

Don’t forget, there are more great topics offering other advice for the newbie or experienced PC user!